The new version, which sports a redesigned user interface, also includes a full calendar window with day, week, month, and year views, an intuitive parsing engine, iCloud reminders support, light theme, time zone support, birthday reminders, Action and Share Extensions as well as Handoff support to connect your Mac with your iOS devices.

iCloud Reminders are even better and users can now see their events and dated reminders together in the main list. Reminders can be quickly created by starting sentences with “reminder”, “todo”, “task”, or “remind me to.” Users can also add dates, times, and location-based geofences (when I arrive/when I leave) to their reminders.

It’s the operating system betas that predict the way the wind if blowing.

Apple on Thursday issued a number of new beta releases for developers, including an OS X 10.10.3 Yosemite beta with Force Touch trackpad support for third-party apps, as well as new betas of iOS 8.3, Xcode and OS X Server.

The pre-release version of OS X 10.10.3 is identified as build “14D98g.” In the release notes, Apple informs developers that it contains application programming interfaces intended to support the Force Touch capabilities of the new 13-inch MacBook Pro.

A recent piece on How-To Geek points out the dramatic rise in malware for Mac OS X, the article highlighting a spike in spyware, adware and overall malware that comes with clicking the wrong items during an installation.

Once installed, the adware injects itself directly into your browser, analyzing your Web traffic, email and sending data back to company servers. The overall message is this: even though you’re a Mac user, there’s additional malware on the rise and it’s time to form some better habits where security is concerned. In the meantime, the Mac App Store is still secure thanks to Apple vetting what goes through there, although not all vendors distribute their software through this store front.

You’re that much closer to OS X 10.10.3 and whatever Apple’s doing with its photo applications.

On Monday, Apple released the first public beta of its OS X 10.10.3 Yosemite update. The beta includes an iCloud-based Photos application, new emojis for the system and simpler login to Google accounts for profiles with two-factor authentication enabled.

This goes into the category of “man, it’s long, but you’ve got to read it”.

An article on Ars Technica discusses the Equation Group, a group of hackers that had an incredible amount of success, were able to use revolutionary methods in their work and may have been embedded within the National Security Agency.

In addition to the findings, researchers within the Kaspersky Group found “redirects that sent iPhone users to unique exploit Web pages. In addition, infected machines reporting to Equation Group command servers identified themselves as Macs, an indication that the group successfully compromised both iOS and OS X devices.”

Shortly after last week’s deployment of OS X 10.10.3 to developers, Apple updated its official Aperture page on its website, adding a notice stating that Aperture will be removed from the Mac App Store when the Photos for OS X app launches.

The same notice can also be found in the app’s Mac App Store description. Once removed from the Mac App Store, it will no longer be possible for new users to obtain the Aperture software, but those who have previously purchased Aperture will continue to be able to download it from the “Purchases” tab.

TL;DR I love the VIP Sender feature in OS X and iOS and use it all the time, but it needs to be expanded.

It works like this: click a sender’s name/email address in either OS X Mail or Mail.app and select “Add to VIPs.” Doing so prioritizes email from that sender and when new mail arrives, you’ll see an alert in notification center.

It’s super-convenient when you’re waiting for an important email from a client, colleague or your spouse. You can’t help but notice the email’s arrival on your iPhone lock screen and VIP Sender has saved my bacon many times. I’m using a VIP Sender this week to correspond back and forth with my account, for example, because I’d like to know immediately when he emails me.

The problem is that Apple caps the number of VIPs at 100 and once you’ve reached the cap your only option is to remove some VIPs. Removing a VIP Sender involves, navigating to the “VIP” folder in Mail, then clicking on senders individually, then on “Remove from VIP.” While not difficult, it can be time consuming.

While we should all endeavor to curate, organize and better tend to our email, but who has the time?

Here are two simple enhancements that would make VIP Sender infinitely more valuable…

It’s the previews and betas that let you know about the cool stuff coming down the pipe…

Developers got their mitts on build 14D721, the first preview build of OS X 10.10.3 on Thursday. The new build featured the first sample of Apple’s forthcoming Photos application, which replaces iPhoto for Mac.

Apple offered a preview of Photos under embargo to select publications ahead of Thursday’s beta release. Initial impressions make it clear the application is yet another marriage between iOS and OS X, including icons and a general look and feel borrowed from the native Photos application for iOS 8.